


Confidence

by conceptstage



Series: Single Chapter Critical Role [99]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-25
Updated: 2019-11-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:22:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21559288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/conceptstage/pseuds/conceptstage
Summary: Alternate title: 5 Times Nott Didn't Keep Beau's Secret + 1 Time She Did
Relationships: Beauregard Lionett & Nott, Jester Lavorre/Beauregard Lionett
Series: Single Chapter Critical Role [99]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1436668
Comments: 17
Kudos: 286





	Confidence

1)

She doesn’t even make it an hour.

“Wow,” she mumbled, sitting down beside Caleb as he read in their room. “I did not see that coming.”

Caleb hummed. “What was that, liebling?”

“Hmm?”

“You said something.”

“Oh, I was just thinking about how Beau has a crush on Jester.” Caleb blinked in surprise and looked over at her but she didn’t seem to realize what she’d said and just started setting up her bedroll. She got up on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek before laying down without a care in the world. “Night.”

“Ja,” Caleb mumbled, looking at Jester as she talked to Caduceus across the room. “Night.”

2)

“I don’t know if we should have let Beau and Jester go off alone,” Nott grumbled, perched on Fjord’s shoulders to see over the top of the crowd that was moving like a river through the city streets. She could hear the music of the festival from the next block over. “Beau’s gonna get distracted and the whole operation is gonna get blown.”

Fjord frowned, trying to seem nonchalaunt. “What makes you say that?”

“I don't know, you know how crushes are. They’re at the Festival of Love, off alone, looking at people making out and shit all over the place, and Jester’s in that low cut dress? Beau’s not gonna be able to focus at all.”

Fjord froze and turned his head to look at her best he could. “Hold on, hold on… Are you telling me that Beau has a crush on Jester?”

Nott made a noise of distress as the realization that yes, yes she had done exactly that hit her. “Nooooo… Of course not. Because if I was privy to that information it would have been under the strictest of confidence and Beau would definitely kill me if I let it get out.”

Fjord rolled his eyes and looked back out to the crowd. “Riiiight, sure. Do you see anything?”

Nott was glad for the change in topic and shook her head, still twisting her fingers nervously. “Not yet.”

Fjord was quiet for a moment before he finally spoke again, speaking up a little to be heard of the people passing by. “So, she told you about this?”

“This what?” Nott asked, deflecting. “The Festival? No, that was the Gentleman.”

Fjord pinched her leg where it dangled over his shoulder and she hissed and smacked the back of his head. “No, dumbass, the crush. You know this for a fact?”

“Ow. Bastard. Yeah, she told me a couple of days ago when we got drunk at the Gentleman’s place.”

“Am I the only person you’ve blabbed to?”

She suddenly remembered being drunk off her ass and talking to Caleb less than an hour after being given the secret. “Yep. Just you.”

“Good. Keep it that way. Beau will tell other people when the time is right but until then, you keep your little mouth shut.”

“I already know that you fucking- I see him!” She exclaimed, gripping Fjord’s hair painfully and pointing out over the sea of people. “Purple suit jacket, silver pin in his hair, just like our contact said.”

Fjord nodded and seamlessly joined the crowd. “Keep an eye on him.”

3)

“Can I ask you something?”

Caduceus looked up from the tea that he was steeping on the stove to Nott who was sitting on the counter while she stirred the rice for dinner. “Certainly.” He picked up a few grains of rice and popped them in his mouth, humming thoughtfully. “More spices.”

Nott picked up the spice shaker and mindlessly added more. “Well, see, I’m in a bit of a moral dilemma. One that I… may have gotten myself into.”

“Those are my specialty.”

“Right, right. See, I was told a secret in confidence and I may have accidentally blabbed it a little bit. Just to one person. Maybe two, but I was drunk that first time, I don’t really remember what I said. Should I… tell the person who told me the secret that I told?”

Caduceus looked thoughtful. “Yes, I think that would be the best course of action. Honesty is always the best policy.”

“Yeah, I was afraid you were gonna say that. What if there’s a very good chance that she will ninja kick to death when she finds out?”

“Well, imagine what Beau would do if she found out that you told from someone other than you. Is it worse?”

Nott did imagine it and winced. “Yeah.” Then she realized exactly what Caduceus had said and exclaimed in shock. “Wha- How- What makes you think that the secret was about Beau's crush on Jester?!”

Caduceus considered explaining that he had figured out the secret was Beau’s because Nott described her ninja kicking people to death but that he’d had no idea about the crush until right this moment, but then he sighed and gave Nott a kind smile as he picked up some more grains of rice to taste. “That’s good, you can stop mixing now. Go on and help Jester set the table.”

Nott was still giving him a bewildered look but she sat the bowl off the side and hopped down to the floor. “You’re some fucking kind of mind reader or something,” she mumbled as she left.

4)

Nott was helping Yasha redo the braids in her hair. They’d gotten fucked up and pulled out when she was with Obann but she only just now felt confident enough in her place in the group to ask for help with them. Nott was sitting on a tree stump with Yasha’s head resting on her knees, her body stretched comfortably as she watched Beau and Fjord sparring across the clearing. 

She huffed in sympathy when Beau got a particularly good hit with her staff in Fjord’s stomach and watched in awe when Beau spun around in the air and kicked him squarely across the face.

Fjord was thrown to the ground and he nearly lost grip on his sword and Beau smirked down at him. “Come on man, this was your idea. Can’t take the heat?”

Fjord was grumbling but Yasha and Nott were too far away to make out the words as he stood up and got back in position.

“Hmm,” Yasha hummed thoughtfully. “Beau’s so badass.”

Nott’s fingers froze halfway through the third braid. “Do you have a crush on her?!”

Yasha jumped in surprise and turned her head to look at her with a raised eyebrow. “What? No, of course not.”

“What do you mean ‘Of course not’? Is she not good enough for you?”

Yasha rolled her eyes and turned back around. “For fuck’s sake, Nott, that’s not what I meant. She is great but she’s… not my type.”

“Well, what’s your type then?”

“My wife.”

Nott winced and tried to distract them both by resuming her work on the braids. “Right… Well, it’s a good thing anyway because she’s already got a crush on- nothing! No one!”

Yasha frowned. “What? Who does she have a crush on?”

“No one! It’s just an expression.”

“Oh, another one of your halfling expressions?”

“Yeah, yeah, you know, like ‘I threw my family under a bridge’ and ‘Beau has a crush on Jester’ that sort of thing.”

Yasha didn’t respond right away but she looked over at Jester who was cheering Beau on several yards away. “Right. Just another expression. Because if it had been the truth then you really threw your family under the bridge on this one.”

5)

“I’m so fucked…” Nott bemoaned as she knocked back her shot of whiskey. “I’ve told almost everyone in the group about Beau’s crush on Jester and she’s going to kill me.”

The bartender looked at her curiously. “Who?”

Nott waved him off. “Forget about it. Another shot!”

+1)

She wandered home sometime around two in the morning, stepping into the Xorhaus and wincing when the crimes rang out around the foyer.

“Nott…” said a voice in a stage whisper from the living room. “Can you come here?”

Nott wandered over that way, only tripping once, and leaned her weight against the door frame. Jester was in the living room, leaning with her back against the couch and her legs stretched out in front of her. Beau was fast asleep and laid out in Jester’s lap, snoring loudly into Jester’s stomach with her arms wrapped around Jester’s waist.

“Jes? Did you call?”

Jester nodded and pointed to a blanket folded up on the other end of the couch. “Could you hand me that? I didn’t want to wake her.”

Nott hummed tiredly but walked over and handed the blanket over. “Night.”

“Night… Hey Nott?”

Nott paused in the doorway again and looked back at her as she shook out the blanket and laid it over Beau’s body. “Hmm?”

“Do you… Do you know if Beau likes anybody?”

Nott’s eyes widened. This was her moment! This was her moment to keep Beau’s secret once and for all! “Nope! She definitely doesn’t like anybody at all. She has no romantic interest in anybody at all ever, she told me so.”

Jester’s face fell but she didn’t stop running her fingers through Beau’s hair. “Oh…I- Okay. Well, good night.”

“Night,” she said again as she marched triumphantly up the stairs.

Nailed it.


End file.
